When I began my doctoral studies in Basel in 1980, I was expected to develop a dissertation topic fairly quickly in the process. I tell you, I spent hours in the theological library perusing the dissertations that had already been produced in the field of New Testament studies. One of them was this very influential work.
In it I saw a model, an exemplar of sorts, of what a good doctoral dissertation should look like. The author, Robert Jewett, wrote it for the protestant faculty of theology at the University of Tübingen in 1966.
The prestigious publisher E. J. Brill in Leiden published it in 1971. The book's bibliography covered 19 pages. It was here that I was introduced to some of the names and personages in the field that I would become very familiar with in the years ahead. They were, in fact, the scholars on whose shoulders the Greek teachers of my generation stood. Names such as:
- Kurt Aland
- C. K. Barrett
- Ernest Best
- Otto Betz
- Matthew Black
- Gunther Bornkamm
- F. F. Bruce
- Hans Conzelmann
- Oscar Cullman
- W. D. Davies
- Martin Dibelius
- C. H. Dodd
- Dieter Georgi
- Martin Hengel
- Joachim Jeremias
- J. B. Lightfoot
- Ernst Lohmeyer
- T. W. Manson
- Otto Michel
- C. F. D. Moule
- Bo Reicke
- Heinrich Schlier
- Walter Schmithals
- Rudolph Schnackenburg
- Krister Stendahl
- Margaret Thrall
- Albert Vanhoye
- Theodor Zahn
In my day, all these were giants, though I reckon only a few of these names would be recognizable to my students today. Yet the scholars of my generation -- my peers, if you will -- owe so very much to their influence on our lives, our studies, even our publications. Their work formed the foundation that became the basis of so many of our successes. They passed the baton on to us, and we took up the burden eagerly. The "we" I'm talking about includes such names as:
- Craig Blomberg
- Gary Burge
- D. A. Carson
- Craig Evans
- Buist Fanning
- David Garland
- Mark Goodacre
- Joel Green
- Peter Gurry
- Scott Hafemann
- Harold Hoehner
- Michael Holmes
- Larry Hurtado
- Craig Keener
- George Knight
- William Lane
- Scot McKnight
- Benjamin Merkle
- Douglas Moo
- Grant Osborne
- Robert Plummer
- Stanley Porter
- Vern Poythress
- Charles Quarles
- Brian Rosner
- Eckhard Schnabel
- Thomas Schreiner
- Mark Strauss
- Christopher Tuckett
- Dan Wallace
- Ben Witherington
My current students are probably familiar with many if not most of these names, though many of us have now fulfilled our own obligations to the scholarly guild and have, in turn, passed the baton to our own students. Everyone leaves a legacy whether they plan to or not. Everything we do, say, or write leaves a lasting impression on the next generation of scholars. If there was only one legacy I could leave, it would be the hope that I have left the legacy of doing God's word rather than just accruing knowledge about it.
It has been my great joy to pass that baton to others. One day you may need to do the same. When that day comes, place it gladly in the palm of your students, and allow them to run the race set before them -- men and women who will live out the Great Commission and make disciples who can in turn make disciples.